


First kill

by halfeatenmoon



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Animal Death, Blood, Gen, Hunters & Hunting, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-26 00:00:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30097131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfeatenmoon/pseuds/halfeatenmoon
Summary: Before she was a goddess of anything, Persephone had Artemis teach her how to hunt.
Relationships: Artemis & Persephone (Hades Video Game)
Kudos: 11





	First kill

The forest was cool, quiet, everything Olympus was not. Persephone felt a little like an intruder; every step she took seemed to crack a branch or rustle some leaves, sometimes startling an animal away. She expected Artemis to tell her off, the first time, but she said nothing. She just paused from where she was standing, a few paces ahead, and looked back as though checking that Persephone was okay. Then she would gesture for them to move again, and they did.

It was just before dawn and the moon was still in the sky, almost full. The forest was cast in the dim blue light of the pre-dawn, with some of the eerie silver of the moon, too. It was a light that suited Artemis. The silver light tipping her furs just made them look more natural, more like they belonged on her shoulders, and the dim light made her almost fade into the trees. Persephone was thinking about this a little too much, in fact, and almost missed Artemis signaling her to stop.

They were near the edge of a clearing; a reasonable place to stop. Persephone wasn’t exactly sure what they were waiting for, though - game? A break? The light to change? - until she saw, through the morning fog, the intricate shape of a pair of antlers.

“Deer?” she whispered to Artemis. “Isn’t that a little big for my first time out?”

“No,” Artemis said, simply.

“But…”

“Talk later,” she said, and stared seriously into Persephone’s eyes. She understood; the less they said now, the less likely that they’d alert the deer and lose the shot. But she would never have more questions than she would right now, the moment before she tried to make her first kill.

Artemis didn’t say another word, but she watched as Persephone notched an arrow to her bowstring, just the way Artemis had taught her. Persephone liked to think that was an encouraging gaze. Then she stared down the arrow shaft and didn’t think at all as she aimed, breathed out, and fired.

The mist was already clearing. She could see a lot more of the deer’s silhouette, now, as it crumpled to the ground.

Persephone didn’t leap up and crow, and neither did Artemis. They both stared at the deer, barely breathing, waiting to see if it would get up. When it thrashed for a moment, but didn’t rise, Artemis stood and walked purposefully towards it. Persephone jogged a few steps to catch up.

The deer was lying on its side, panting, Persephone’s arrow lodged between its ribs with the fletching now snapped off. It made a token effort to get up as they approached but fell back again, panting harder. Surrendered to its fate.

Persephone spoke first. “It wasn’t a great shot.”

Artemis hummed, thoughtfully, but didn’t keep going. “Talk later. We have to end its pain, now. You have no knife, correct?”

Persephone’s hand moved instinctively to the table knife at her belt, but she saw Artemis’ hunting knife and stopped. Her table knife wasn’t going to do the job.

“I can make the final kill, if you like,” said Artemis. She was offering her hunting knife, and in her eyes there was only kindness, not judgement. “Many can’t make the cut, their first time. There’s no shame in it. She’s still your kill.”

“No, I want to do it,” Persephone said, firmly. She took the knife, and marveled that her hand didn’t shake as she knelt by the deer and held the knife to her throat.

This was new, and she had been nervous to fail, but not afraid. It didn’t feel like home exactly, hunting with Artemis, but it felt real in a way that answering prayer after prayer for good harvests did not. It felt like there was something more she was supposed to be doing, a greater purpose to her divinity than blessing people’s crops. As she put one knee on the doe’s shoulder and braced a hand against her skull, she pulled the knife across the throat, as confidently as she had ever done, and watched the blood run out to stain her hands.

“You’ll get it cleaner, with practice,” Artemis said, as Persephone stood up and looked at the mess. “That was well done. I’d say we can clean you up, but soon we’ll have the dressing to do, to take her home.”

“That’s okay,” Persephone said, still looking at her bloodied hands. “I don’t mind this at all.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm halfeatenmoon on twitter and tumblr if you ever want to talk hadesgame with me!


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